Rio Ferdinand looks on
Rio Ferdinand has spoken about Ruben Amorim (Image: PA)
Rio Ferdinand says that Ruben Amorim must make a strong impression at Manchester United by Christmas before the board re-evaluates his position. Since taking over from Erik ten Hag in November, Amorim has struggled to adapt his squad to his preferred style of play, leading to United's lowest-ever Premier League finish at 15th this season.
Despite this, it seems the board are prepared to support the 40-year-old through the summer transfer window and pre-season. Ferdinand insists that Amorim has only until the mid-season mark to begin showing progress and achieving results before questions about his tenure arise though. "I think the recruitment, he needs that time," Ferdinand told the Mirror.
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"He's had one player, [Patrick] Dorgu, that he's been able to recruit. So, it looks like [Matheus] Cunha's come, and I think there's hopefully going to be one or two more in this window.
"Then you can start judging him a little bit more. I don't think in his wildest dreams he thought he'd have finished 15th. None of us fans would have thought that either.
"So, that's been a huge disappointment in that sense. But I don't think you can fully judge everything he's done yet when he hasn't had a chance to bring in players. We're judging him based on someone else's players. And I think, yeah, get to Christmas and let's see how we're looking."
Ruben Amorim looks on
Ruben Amorim has struggled this season (Image: Getty Images)
The January transfer window left Amorim with limited resources following Ten Hag's spending spree on Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt, and Leny Yoro. The tight budget saw United welcome only Dorgu from Lecce for £25.1million and Ayden Heaven from Arsenal, in a modest deal just over £1m.
In contrast, United have already made a statement this summer, clinching Cunha from Wolves in a mammoth £62.5m signing as they seek to strengthen their forward line. Rumours also swirl around potential interest in Viktor Gyokeres, Victor Osimhen and Bryan Mbeumo, though Mbeumo may choose to reunite with Thomas Frank at Tottenham instead.
The daunting task of emulating Sir Alex Ferguson's era has seen several hopefuls including David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer all fall short. And Ferdinand has claimed that the reasons behind United's prolonged Premier League drought since 2013 may be manifold.
Rio Ferdinand looks on
Rio Ferdinand says Ruben Amorim has until Christmas to make a difference (Image: Getty)
He said: "If I had the answer to that question, I'd be at Man Utd now sorting things out. But I don't think it's ever one reason. I don't think when you have failures in anything, in any walk of life, it's down to one single thing.
"I think there's a number of different things that you could point to for the demise of Manchester United and sustained lack of success. I think one of them being the recruitment will be high on the list of most people, saying that the recruitment's been wrong.
"For whatever reason, for various different reasons, identifying the wrong players technically, tactically, physically, mentally at times, that's been an issue. Were the managers right for the club at the respective times that they came? Maybe not, some of them.
"And I think the actual infrastructure of the football club behind the scenes has been probably something that you looked at and gone, actually, that could have been better. And there was a big change.
"Not many clubs lose their manager, the most successful manager they've ever had, and the CEO in the same window. But Man Utd had done that, and they had two people that were pivotal to the success. One was a lot more public and was understood to be the driver of the whole machine, which he was to a certain point.
"But every great manager, every great individual, there's always a sidekick somewhere, and David Gill was that for Sir Alex Ferguson. So, to lose two of them when United did was definitely a hammer blow, but never recovered since."
Rio Ferdinand poses at a Talking Futures event
Rio Ferdinand has launched the Career Transfer Hub with Talking Futures (Image: James Cannon)
In addition to his football insights, Ferdinand has been busy launching his Career Transfer Hub with Talking Futures, aiming to bridge the gap between teenagers and their parents in career planning. On the initiative, he said: "I think it's about empowering kind of families to talk more about education, especially parents.
"I think we're comfortable talking about a lot of things, i.e. football, a lot of the time in and around the front room or across the table with your kids, but getting that kind of common ground when you're talking about education, sometimes it's quite difficult, even I've found it difficult at times.
"So something like this is definitely a good way in and a good avenue in to kind of having those conversations about what's next in your life, education wise, where do you see yourself going? What paths are you looking at?
"And this is a great, I think, avenue for parents to really kind of touch the paper and go, right, listen, here we go, and start walking their kids down the right path, giving them a little bit of autonomy over it, but also guide them a little bit at the same time. So I wish I'd had this when I was younger - although I had football, which I was quite fortunate with."
Rio Ferdinand has partnered with Talking Futures to launch the Career Transfer Hub – giving parents access to information on their child’s education options just like football agents have transfer insiders, negotiation teams and career scouts. You can find out more here.